tf 


Vu£.-%  \XdY£*ftof 


Library  of 
The  University  of  North  Carolina 


COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


ENDOWED  BY 

JOHN  SPRUNT  HILT, 

of  the  Class  of  1889 


Cp  3  70,71-  1/3*3-1 


Digitized  by  the. Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/messagefromhisexnort 


tp zioji  -  o r^ar {    14tJljl 


) 


{UXECUTIVE  Doc.  15.] 


MESSAGE 


FROM 


HIS  EXCELLENCY,  GOV.  DAVID  S.  REID, 


Transmitting  Communications  from 


THE  GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA 


AND    FROM 


THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NASHVILLE  CONVENTION. 


RALEIGH: 

Thos.  J.  Lemaj,  Printer  to  the  State. 
1831. 


House  Coms.    Jan.  3rd,  1851. 
[Read  and  ordered  to  be  sent  to  the  Senate.] 

Senate,  Jan.  4th,  1851. 
[Ordered  to    be  printed.] 


Executive  Office,  ) 

January  2nd,  1851.        I 
To  the  Honorable, 

The  General  Asseihbly  of  the  Stale  of  North  Carblina; 
I  have  the  honor  herewith  to  transmit  a  communication 
received  from  his  Excellency  the  Governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina, enclosing  an  act  passed  r>v  the  Legislature  of  that  State 
to  provide  for  calling  a  Southern  Convention,  &c  And  al- 
so, a  communication  from  the  President  of  the  Nashville 
Convention,  in  relation  to  the  Shivery  question,  and  the 
rights  of  the  States. 

DAVID  S.  REID 


[The  Communications  referred    to  are  marked  A  and;: 
and  follow  in  the  order  in   which  they  are  mentioned  in 
foregoing  letter  from  the  Governor.] 


[A.] 
COMMUNICATION 


From  the  Governor  of  South  Car 
olina. 


Executive  Department,  ) 

Columbia,  So.  Ca.  21  Deer.  1850.  ^ 
To  His  Excellency,  David  S.  Reid, 

Governor  of  the  State  op  North  Carolina: 
Dear  Sir, — By  direction  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  I  send  you  the  Act   passed  at  its   late  sit- 
ting, which  is  herewith  enclosed. 

I  need  scarcely  remind  your  Excellency  that  the  common 
dangers  with   which   onr  Institutions  are   threatened,   call 
loudly  upon  the  South  to  be  united,  that  they  may  be  averts 
ed.     The  course  pursued  towards  us  by  our  Northern  breth 
ren,  if  not  checked,  must  involve  notor.ly  our  Institutions, 
but  ourselves,  in   ruin.     The   history  of  the    legislation    ot 
Congress  for  the  last  few  years,  is  such  as  to  prove  that  ag 
gressions  upon  the  South  will  not  cease,  but  move   onward. 
The  Constitution  is,  in  my  humble  judgment,  entirely  disre 
garded,  and  the  only  hope  we  can   possibly  have   that   our 
liberties  or  our  Institutions  can  be  permanent,  is  to  be  deriv- 
ed from  ourselves.     I  have  little  doubt  but  that  your   Ex- 
cellency will  agree  with  me,  that  the  interests  of  the  States 
over  which  we  have  the  honor  to   preside  are  the  same,  and 
this  induces   me  earnestly   to  request  your   o-operation  in 
carrying  out  the  objects  indicated  in  the  Act. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

with  distinguished  consideration, 

your  Excellency's  obedient  servant, 
J.  H.  MEANS. 


ii 
il 


STATE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

•it  a  General  Assembly  begun  and  holden  at  Columbia  oi 
the  fourth  Monday  in  November,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
one  thousand  eight    hundred    and  fifty,  and  from    thence 

•I  continued  by  divers  adjournments  to  the  twentieth  day  of 
December,  in  the  same  year. 


AN  ACT 

■fo  provide  for  the  appointment  of  Deputies  to  a   Southern 
1   Congress,  and  to  call  a  Convention  of  the  people  of  this 
State. 

Whereas,  the  Convention  of  the  slave-holding  States  late- 
nt assembled  at  Nashville,  have  lecommended  to  the  said 
tates  to  meet  in  Congress  or  Convention,  to  be  held  at  such 
me  and  place  as  the  States  desiring  to  be  represented  may 
esignate  •,  to  be  composed  of  double  the  number  of  their 
enators  and  Representatives  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
tates,  entrusted  with  full  power  and  authority  to  deliberate, 
nth  the  view  and  intention  of  arresting  further  aggressions, 
nd,  if  possible,  of  restoring  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the 
outh,  and  if  not,  to  recommend  due  provision  for  their  fu- 
uo  safety  and  independence. 

Sec.  1,  Beit  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  llou$eofHepre- 
midlives,  noiv  met  and  silting  in  General  Assembly,  and 
y  the  authority  of  the  same,  That  eighteen  deputies  shall 
a  appointed  in  the  manner  hereinafter  provided,  who  are 
ereby  authorized,  as  deputies  from  the- Slate,  to  meet  such 
eptities  as  may  be  appointed  and  authorized  by  any  other 
ave-liolding  State  in  Congress  or  Convention  as  above  re- 
Dmmended,  and  to  join  with  thern  in  discussing  and  de- 
ising  such  measures,  as  in  their  opinion  may  be  adequate  to 
•>t.ain  the  objects  proposed  by  the  said  Convention  at  Nash- 
LUe,  and  in  reporting  such  measures  to  the  said  several  s-'av- 


Holding  States,  as  when  agreed  to  and  lully  confirmed  by 
them,  or  any  of  them  will  effectually  provide  for   the  same. 

Sec.  II.  Four  of  the  said  deputies  shall  be  elected  by  joint 
ballot  of  the  General  Assembly  at  its  present  session,  and 
the  qualified  voters  in  each  Congressional  District  in  this 
State  shall  elect  two,  at  such  time  as  is  hereinafter  prescribed. 

Sec.  III.  The  Governor  of  this  State  shall  issue  writs  ot 
election  to  the  Managers  of  Election,  requiring  them  to  hold 
elections  in  their  respective  Congressional  Districts  on  the 
second  Monday  in  October  next,  and  the  day  following',  for 
two  deputies  to  the  said  Congress,  in  each  Congressional  dis- 
trict; aud  the  said  Managers  shall  thereupon  advertize  and 
hold  such  elections,  and  make  due  return  thereof  to  the  Gov- 
ernor. 

Sec.  IV.  That  the  Governor  shall  duly  commission  all 
the  said  deputies,  so  to  be  elected  by  the  General  Assembly 

and  by  the  people;  and  shall,  in  concert  with  the  Governors 
or  other  proper  authorities  of  other  States  joining  in  such 
Congress,  appoint  the  time  and  pace  of  maeting,  and  give 
due  notice  thereof;  and  any  of  the  deputies  on  the  part  of 
this  State,  who  may  attend  at  such  time  and  place,  shall 
have  full  power  to  represent  the  State,  as  hereinbefore  pro- 
vided. 

Sec.  V.  And  us  it  further  enacted  hy  the  authority  ajore- 
said,  That  a  Convention  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  is  hereby  ordained  to  be  assembled  in  the  Town 
of  Columbia,  as  hereinafter  provided,  for  the  purpose,  in  the 
first  place,  of  taking  into  consideration  the  proceedings  and 
recommendations  of  a  Congress  of  the  slaveholding  States,  if 
ihe  same  shall  meet  and  be  held:  and  for  the  further  purpose 
if  taking  into  consideration  the  general  welfare  of  this  State 
in  view  of  her  relations  to  the  laws  and  Government  of  the 
United  Slates,  and  thereupon,  to  take  care  that  the  Common- 
wealth of  South  Carolina  shall  suffer  no  detriment. 

Sec.  VI.  Jlndbeit  further  enactedb tj  the  authority  afore- 
said. That  on  the  second  Monday  in  February  next,  and  on 
the  day  following,  the  managers  of  elections  for  the  several 


I 


9 

Districts  in  this  State  shall,  after  giving  public  notice,  as  in 
,;ases  of  elections  for  Members  of  the  Legislature,  open  the 
Dolls  and  hold  elections  in  their  respective  Districts  lor  Def- 
lates to  the  said  Convention,  in  all  respects  in  the  same 
(manner  and  form  ana  at  the  same  places,  as  elections  are 
low  conducted  fjr  Members  of  the  Legislature.  And  all 
)ersons  who  are  qualified  and  entitled,  by  the  Constitution 
ind  laws  of  this  State,  to  vote  for  Members  of  the  Legislature, 
ihail  be  qualified  and  entitled  to  vote  for  said  Delegates  to  said 
Donvenlion;  and  in  case  of  any  vacancy  occurring  by  death, 
esignation,  removal  from  the  State,  of  refusal  to  serve,  of  any 
>erson  elected  a  Delegate  to  the  said  Convention,  the  presi- 
ling  officer  of  the  said  Convention  shall  issue  his  writ  aut- 
horizing and  requiring  the  managers  of  elections,  iri 
he  election  district  in  which  such  vacancy  may  have 
'CCUTed,  after  giving  due  notice  thereof,  to  open  a  poll 
,nd  hold  an  election  to  fill  such  vacancy,  as  in  cases  for  the 
election  of  Members  of  the  Legislature. 

Sec.  VII.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority 
foresaid,  That  each  election  district  throughout  the  State 
hall  be  entitled  to  elect  and  send  to  the  said  Convention,  a 
mmber  of  Delegates  equal  to  the  whole  number  of  Senators 
nd  Representatives  which  such  District  is  now  entitled  to 
end  to  the  Legislature;  and  the  Delegates  to  the  said  Con- 
ention  shall  be  entitled  to  the  same  freedom  of  arrest  in  go- 
ng to,  returning  from,  and  whilst  in  attendance  on  said  Con- 
dition, as  is  extended  to  the  Members  of  the  Legislature. 

Sac.  VIII.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority 
foresaid;  That  all  free  white  male  citizens  of  this  State,  of 
:ie  age  of  twenty-one  years  and  upwards,  shall  be  eligible  to 

seat  in  said  Convention. 

!  Sec.  IX.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority  a- 

brcsaid,  That  the  Governor  be    and    is   hereby   requested, 

orthwirh,  after  the  passage  of  this  Act,  to  communicate  an 

lithe  n  tic  copy  ot  the  same  to  the  Executive  of  each  of  the 

laveholding  States  of  the  Union,  and  to   urge  upon  the  said 

uthoriiies,  in  such  manner  as  he  may  deern  best,  the  desire 
[Sig.  2,  Ex.  Dor.  15.] 


10 

of  the  State  of  South  Carolina  that  the  said  slaveholding 
States  do  send  duly  commissioned  deputies,  to  meet  the  dep- 
uties herein  provided  to  be  elected,  at  the  city  of  Montgomery, 
in  the  State  of  Alabama,  on  the  2nd  day  of  January,  Anno 
Domino,  1852. 

Sec.  X.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority  0- 
Joresaid,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  his  Excellency,  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  by  his  Proclamation,  to  call  together 
said  Convention,  and  appoint  the  time  for  the  meeting  there- 
of, whenever  or  at  any  period,  before  the  next  session  of  this 
General  Assembly,  the  conjuncture  of  a  Southern  Congress, 
contemplated  Li  the  purpose  of  this  Act,,  shall  have  happen- 
ed :  Provided,  That  in  case  the  Governor  shall  not  assemble 
the  Convention  anterior  to  the  next  session  of  this  Legisla- 
ture, this  general  Assembly  shall,  by  a  majority  of  votes,  fix 
the  time  lor  the  meeting  of  said  Convention. 

That  the  said  Convention  may  be  continued  by  adjourn- 
ment from  time  to  time,  so  long  as  may  be  necessary  for  the 
purposes  aforesaid :  Provided,  however,  that  unless  sooner 
dissolved  by  their  own  authorily,  the  said  convention  shall 
cease  and  determine  twelve  months  from  the  day  on  which 
the  said  Convention  shall  first  assemble. 

In  the  Senate  House,  the  twentieth  day  of  December,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty, 
and  in  the  seventy  fifth  year  of  the  Sovereignty  and  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  of  America. 

R.  F.  W.  ALLSTON,  President  of  Senate. 

JAMES  SIMONS,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 


A  true  copy. 

B.  V.  Welts,  Sec'ty 
Executive  Department. 


[B.] 
COMMUNICATION 

From  the  President  of  the  Nash- 
ville Convention. 


Marietta,  Geo.,  / 
2nd  Dec,  1850.  \ 
Sir  : — I  have  the  honor  to  forward  to  you  a  copy  o-f  the 
preamble  and  resolutions,  adopted  by  the  Southern  Conven- 
tion, at  its  late  session  in  Nashville.  You  will  perceive  that 
it  was  the  expectation  of  the  Convention  that  this  document 
would  be  laid  betore  your  Legislature,  at  as  early  a  day  as 
it  may  suit  your  Excellency's  convenience,  with  ihe  hope 
that  their  proceedings  may  produce  harmony  of  action,  a- 
mong  the  States  interested  in  the  subject  to  which  they  re- 
late. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Yeiy  respectfully, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  McDONALP, 
To  Governor  Reid, 


OF 

THE  SOUTHERN  CONTENTION. 


Southern  Convention,  ) 
November  \8lh,  1S50.      ) 

The  following  Preamble  and  Resolutions   were  reported  by 
the  Committee  on  Resolutions,    and  adopted  by  the  Con- 
vention :  , 
We,  the  delegates   assembled  from  a  portion  of  the  States 
of  this  Confederacy,  make  this  exposition  of  the  causes  which 
have  brought  us  together,  and  of  the  rights  which  the  States 
we  represent  are  entitled  to  under  the  compact  of  union. 

We  have  amongst  us  two  races,  marked  by  such  distinc- 
tions of  color,  and  pysical  and  moral  qualities,  as  forever  for- 
bid their  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political  e- 
quality. 

The  black  race  have  been  slaves  from  the  earliest  settle- 
ment of  our  country,  and  our  relations  of  master  and  slave 
have  grown  up  from  that  time.  A  change  in  those  relations 
must  end  in  convulsion,  and  the  entire  ruin  of  one  or  both 
races. 

When  the  constitution  was  adopted,  this  relation  of  mas- 
ter and  slave,  as  it  exists,  was  expressly  recognized  and 
guarded  in  that  instrument.  It  was  a  great  and  vital  inter- 
est, involving  our  very  existence  as  a  separate  people,  then 
as  well  as  now. 

The  States  of  this  Confederacy  acceded  to  that  compact 
each  one  for  itself,  and  ratified  it  as  States. 


14 

If  the  non-slaveholding  Stales,  who  are  parties  to  that; 
compact,  disregard  its  provisions,  and  endanger  our  peace j 
and  existence  by  united  and  deliberate  action,  we  have  a' 
right,  as  Slates,  there  beit»g  no  common  arbiter,  to  secede. 

The  object  of  those  who  are  urging  on  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment in  its  aggressive  policy  upon  our  domestic  institu-; 
tions,  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  finally  to  overthrow  them,  and] 
abolish  the  existing  relation  between  master  and  slave,  We? 
feel  authorized  to  assert  this  from  their  own  declarations,  and 
from  the  history  of  events  in  this  country  for  the  last  few 
years. 

To  abolish  slavery  or  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia — to  regulate  the  saleand  transfer  of  slaves  between 
the  States — to  exclude  slaveholders  with  their  property  from 
the  territories — to  admit  California  under  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  we  hold  to  be  all  parts  of  the  same  system  of 
measures,  and  suborninate  to  the  same  end  they  have  in 
view,  which  is  openly  avowed  to  be,  the  total  overthrow  of 
the  institution. 

We  make  no  aggressive  move.  We  stand  upon  the  de- 
fensive. We  invoke  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  claim 
itsguranties.  Our  rights — our  independence — the  peace  and 
existence  of  our  families — depend  upon  the  issue. 

The  Federal  Goveinment  has  within  a  few  years  acquir- 
ed, by  treaty  and  by  triumphant  war,  vast  territories.  This 
has  been  done  by  the  councils  and  the  arms  of  all,  and  the 
benefits  and  rights  belong  alike  and  equally  to  all  the  States. 
The  Federal  Government  is  but  the  common  agent  of  the 
States  united,  and  represents  their  conjoined  sovereignty  over 
subject  matter  granted  and  defined  in  the  compact. 

The  authority  it  exercises  over  all  acquired  territory,  must, 
in  good  faith,  be  exercised  for  the  equil  benefit  of  all  the 
parlies.  To  prohibit  our  citizens  from  settling  there  with 
the  most  valuable  part  of  our  property,  is  not  only  degrading 
to  us  as  equals,  but  violates  oui  highest  constitutional  rights. 

Restrictions  and  prohibitions  against  the  slaveholding 
States  it  would  appear,  are  to  be  the  fixed  and  settled  policy 


15 

of  the  Government— and  those  States  that  are  hereafter  U 
admitted  into  the  Federal  Union  from  their  extensive  terri* 
lories  will  but  confirm  and  increase  the  power  of  the  major- 
ity; and  he  knows  little  of  history  who  cannot  read  our 
destiny  in.  the  future  if  we  fail*  to  do  ow  duty  now,  as  free 
people. 

We  have  been  harrassed  and  insulted  by  those  who  ought 
to  have  been  our  brethren  in  their  constant  agitation  of  a  sub- 
ject vital  to  us  an  J  the  peace  of  our  families.  We  have  been 
outraged  by  their  gross  misrepresentations-  of  our  moral  and 
social  habits,  and  by  the  manner  in  which  they  have  de- 
nounced us  before  the  world.  We  have  had  our  property 
enticed  off  and  the  means  of  recovery  denied  us  by  our  co- 
States.  We  have  been  denied  out  right?  in  the  Territories  of 
the  Union,  which  we  were  entitled  to  as  political  equals  un- 
der the  constitution.  Our  peace  has  been  endangered  by  in- 
cendiary appeals.  The  Union  instead  of  being  considered  a 
fraternal  bond,  has  been  used  as  the  means  of  striking  at  our 
vita!  interests. 

Theadmision  of  California,  under   the   circumstances    of 
the  case  confirms  an  unauthorized  and  revolutionary  seizure 
of  public  domain,  and  the  exclusion  of  near  half  the    Slates 
of  the  Confederacy   from  equal  lights   therein — destroys    the 
.line  of  36  30  which  was  originally  acquiesced  in  as   a  mat- 
ter of  compromise  and  peacerand  appropriates  to  the  North- 
ern States  120,000  square  miles  below  that  line,    and  is  so 
gross  and  palpable  a  violation  of  the  principles  of  justice  and 
,  equality  as  to  shake  our  confidence    in    any    security    to   be 
.given  by  that  majority  who  are  now  clothed  with   power  to 
govern  the  future  destiny  of  this  confederacy. 

The  rec'ent  purchase  of  territory  by  Con gress  from  Texa-s,.. 
]  as  low  down  as 32  degrees  on  the  IJio  Grande,.,  also  indicate 
that  the  boundaries  of  the  slaveholding  Stales  are  fixed,1, andJ 
our  doom  proscriped,  so  far  as  it  depends  upon  the  will  of  a> 
'dominant  majority,  and  nothing  now  can  save  us  from  a  de- 
graded destiny  bu:  the  spirit  of  freemen  who  know  their 
«  rights  and  are  resolved  to  maintain  them,  be  the  consequence, 
s  what  they  may. 


We  have  no  powers  that  are  binding  upon  the  States  we 
represent.  But  in  order  to  produce  system  and  ec  ncerted 
action,  we  recommend  the  following  resolutions,  viz: 

Resolved,  That  we  have  ever  cherishe.!,  and  do  now  cher- 
ish a  cordia!  attachment  to  the  constitutional  Union  of  the 
States  and  that  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  that  Ueiob  unkn- 
paired,  this  Convention  originated  and  has  now  re-assembled. 

Resolved,  That  the  Union  of  the  Slates  is  a  Union  of  e- 
qual  and  independent  sovereignties,  and  that  the  powers  del- 
egated to  tire  Fed-era  1  Government,  can  be  resumed  by  the 
several  States,  whenever  it  may  seem  to-  them  proper  and 
necessary. 

Resolved,  That  all  the  evils  anticipated  by  the  Sonth,  and' 
which  occasioned*  this  Convention  to  assemble  have  been 
realized,  by  the  faiinie  to  extend  the  Missouri  line  of  Corn- 
promise  to  the  Pacific  Ocean;  By  the  admission  of  California 
;is ,a  Stfite;  8y  the  organization  of  Territorial  Governments 
for  Uutband  New  Mexico,  without  giving  adequate  protec- 
tion tot.e  property  of  the  South;  By  ihe  dismemberment  of 
Texas;  By  the  iHoliiion  of  the  s-!ave'  trade  and  -the  emancipa- 
tion of  slaves  earned  into  the  District  of  Columbia  for   sale. 

Resolved,  Thit  we  earnestly  recommend  to  all  parties  in 
the slav -holding  St.Jes,  to  refuse  to  go  into,  or  countenance 
any  National  (Vnvention,  whose  object  may  be  to  nominate 
candidates  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice  Presidency  of  the  U- 
nited  States,  under  any  party  denomination  whatever,  until 
our  constitutional  rights  are  secured. 

Resolved,  That  in  view  of  these  aggressions,  and  of  those 
threatened  and  impending,  we  earnestly  recommend  to  the 
slaveholding  States,  to  meet  in<  a  Congress  or  Convention, 
to  he  held  at  such  lime  and  place  as  the  States  desiring  to 
be  represented,  may  designate,  to  be  composed  of  double  the 
number  of  their  Senators  and  K'epresentati  ves  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  Statss,  entrusted  with  full  power  and 
authority  to  deliberate  and  act  with  the  view  and  intention 
ot  arresting  farther  aggression,  and  if  possible,  of  restoring 
ihe  Consiiiutional  rights  of  the  South,  and  if  not  to  provide 
for  their  future  safety  and  independence. 

R solved.  That  the  President  of  this  Convention  be  "re- 
quested to  forward  copies  o'  the  foregoing  preamble  and  res- 
olutions to- the  Governors  ol  each  of  the  slaveholding  States 
of  the  Union,  to  be  laid  before  their  icspective  Legislatures 
at  their  eailicst  assembling. 

CHAKLES  J.   McDCNALD,  President. 
BRUBtiN  CHAPMAN,  Vice  President. 

E.  G\   Eastman,  Secretary. 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse, N.  Y. 

PAT.  M  21,  1808 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032722830 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


Form  No.  A-368 


